1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a travel support system which supports safety traveling of vehicles through communication between a large number of vehicles, the travel support system notifies information about a non-equipped vehicle which is not equipped with a communication module. The present invention particularly relates to a travel support system including a mobile terminal such as a car navigation system (hereinafter, a car navigation).
2. Description of the Related Art
A large number of systems for supporting safety traveling in which vehicles communicate with each other about their positions and movements, or vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems have been disclosed. In the vehicle-to-vehicle communication technique, vehicles equipped with a communication module (hereinafter, referred to as an equipped vehicle) communicate with each other about position information and the like. Therefore, the vehicle-to-vehicle communication technique is unavailable for a vehicle equipped with no communication module (hereinafter, referred to as a non-equipped vehicle). In response to this situation, there is a system for avoiding a collision with a non-equipped vehicle. In this system, a vehicle equipped with a communication module recognizes a non-equipped vehicle by using a camera mounted on the equipped vehicle, and then makes a notification to an oncoming vehicle ready to turn to the right at an intersection (Patent Reference 1). According to this system, since the equipped vehicle is notified that the non-equipped vehicle is present at the intersection, the equipped vehicle can know the presence of the non-equipped vehicle, such as a motorbike hidden behind an oncoming vehicle traveling straight head through the intersection. This can avoid a collision which may occur when a vehicle turns to the right.
There is another system for avoiding a collision. In this system, an estimate is made that, between equipped vehicles, a non-equipped vehicle whose moving direction is the same as the equipped vehicles, is present at a predetermined position. This estimated information is transmitted to another equipped vehicle (Patent Reference 2).
Patent Reference 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-295178.
Patent Reference 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-185136.